Persephone’s Eyes

Wanting to move on from figures with black eyes, I recently began reverse painting round glass cabochons to create eyes for my artwork. A pleasant and unexpected side effect of this is that the eyes appear to follow you wherever you position yourself. I really like 1970’s horror movies, especially the ones involving paintings that had eyes which followed the actors wherever they went, so I am pleased with my new creepy eyes. Eyes have always been an important part of my work and I think that these painted ones will give my work a new kind of presence and emotion.

Emotion is especially important to the story of Persephone. It is the story of a woman who has no choice over her future, position, or choice of husband and I wanted to convey both the sadness and anger that she must have felt. Persephone was a beautiful maiden until Hades, Lord of the Underworld and the Land of the Dead, abducted her and tricked her into eating Pomegranate seeds. Pomegranate seeds were fruit of the underworld and once she ate them she became Hades wife, Queen of the Underworld.